Estonia, Innovations, Markets and Companies, Technology

Veriff`s founder and CEO, Kaarel Kotkas, says the recruitment is just taking off. “According to current estimations, we will have over two hundred people working for us in just six months time. The growth is exponential, however, we are growing to meet the customers` needs. At the beginning of 2018, we had nine customers, now it is close to one hundred. Even though the increase in business volume urges recruitment, the competition is very tough. We have joked amongst ourselves that it`s easier to get into Stanford or Harvard University - every nineteenth qualified candidate is accepted to Harvard. The competition to work for us is one to thirty-two. Our goal is to grow based on need, but with the best possible team. Currently, we have people from the US, Brazil, Ghana, Japan and elsewhere, and internationalization will continue in the future,” he said. 

Over the past year, Veriff has added talent to its machine-learning, verification and product development teams. Meanwhile, the company has recruited a number of experienced key players. The former Managing Director of Skype Estonia, Tiit Paananen, is the VP of Engineering; the former LHV Head of Digital Channels, Triin Uustal,u is the Head of Marketing; the former CEO of Uber Baltics, Enn Metsar, is the Business Development Manager; the former Skype Software Architect, Jaanus Kivistik, is the COO; The Co-Founder of Scoro Kristina Lilleõis is the HR Manager, the Verification Unit is headed by former Verification Unit Manager at TransferWise, Kreet Prants; BrowserID founder Argo Mändmaa is the Fraud Product Manager; and the machine-learning team is headed by the former Software Engineer at Starship Technologies, Taivo Pungas. 

Veriff`s team includes a lot of people with exciting hobbies. “Everyone knows that Tiit is a crafts beer brewer. We also have sommeliers, pilots, sailors, MMA-enthusiasts, parachuters, travel bloggers, travel guides, swing-dancers and songwriters working for us,” said Kotkas. 

Veriff currently has around a hundred customers across the globe, including finance and sharing economy companies and online department stores. In January 2019, Veriff extended its product portfolio by acquiring the cyber security company BrowserID, which can identify risks from device-based data. 

Veriff has raised 8.3 mln dollars of investments from 25 institutional and private investors. Mosaic Ventures, Y-Combinator, SV Angel, ACE & Company, LIFT99, Superangel, Taavet Hinrikus, Ashton Kutcher, Paul Buchheit, Elad Gil, Sten Tamkivi, Ragnar Sass, Taavi Kotka, the former CEO of LexisNexis Andrew Prozes and many others have all invested in the company. 

Veriff was founded in 2015 by Kaarel Kotkas who was 20 years old at the time. Last spring, Nordic Business Report named Kaarel Kotkas among the 25 most influential young entrepreneurs in Northern Europe.